“Infinite Patience and Never-Ending Persistence”

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in D.C.

One night during Spring Break, Ruthie, a woman who lives in a L’Arche community, took Katie and I on her infamous monument tour (and the FDR memorial is her favorite stop on the tour). While we were walking, it hit me that these memorials provide a gateway to a key part of life--remembering. The monuments capture where we have fallen and lost loved ones, and they also represent times where we have persevered in history. I saw the monuments through the new life perspective that L’Arche and my independent study have opened up for me. Sometimes we need reflect on how fragile and human we are in order to find strength. A walk through the memorials and monuments made me reflect on the struggles of human weakness and the power of hope that exists in the darkest of times. Remembering where we have been helps us to discern where God is leading us in the future.

The monument that struck me most on this visit was the FDR memorial. One reason it struck me was reflecting on the disabling grip Polio had on FDR. Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Franklin's illness gave him strength and courage he had not had before. He had to think out the fundamentals of living and learn the greatest of all lessons -- infinite patience and never-ending persistence." This president’s life is a powerful narrative for those with disabilities and for those who are able-bodied. FDR helped to infuse hope into our nation during an extremely difficult time of the Great Depression and WWII.

Another element that attracted me to this monument was the powerful quotations that represent a voice for the marginalized. And so, when I saw these quotes I read them through the lens of the liberation movement for individuals with disabilities.

"I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, and ill-nourished. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." (Second Inaugural Address, Washington, D.C., January 20, 1937.)

"The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man, or one party, or one nation. It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world." (Address before Congress on the Yalta Conference, Washington, D.C., March 1, 1945.)

"We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all citizens, whatever their background. We much remember that any oppression, any injustice, and hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization." (Greeting to the American Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born, Washington, D.C., January 9, 1940.)

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith." (Undelivered Address prepared for Jefferson Day to be delivered April 13, 1945.)

These words are powerful not because they stand for something new that we have never heard before. We have heard the cry of injustice and the shouts of struggle. But rather, these quotes are powerful because they renew and reenergize us to recognize and renounce injustice in our world today.They are powerful because these words extend an invitation to each of us to be a voice and a light in the world again and again and again. We shouldn't become calloused to hearing voices who speak for the marginalized, but be motivated to act to better the world around us. For we know and believe that God makes all things new again.